D&D 5E Identify Spell vs Resting With Item

[KarinsDad]

Yeah, they should be used sparingly. I can see them being useful if the item makes sense for the environment or to the story. Random cursed items are indeed just for lols, I think.

From a verisimilitude pov, if magic item creation is rare and most NPCs think like PCs that a cursed item is a pita, then it makes sense that the vast majority of cursed items would have a high propensity to be permanently disposed of. Does an NPC really want his grandkids to find his old cursed sword in the attic?

Cursed items should be almost non-existent. Keeping one is like keeping sour milk in your fridge.

Sure, the occasional rich lord might have one to discourage thieves or whatever ("Ha ha, steal that"), but even the rich lord should have an extremely hard time finding one.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

From a verisimilitude pov, if magic item creation is rare and most NPCs think like PCs that a cursed item is a pita, then it makes sense that the vast majority of cursed items would have a high propensity to be permanently disposed of. Does an NPC really want his grandkids to find his old cursed sword in the attic?

Cursed items should be almost non-existent. Keeping one is like keeping sour milk in your fridge.

Sure, the occasional rich lord might have one to discourage thieves or whatever ("Ha ha, steal that"), but even the rich lord should have an extremely hard time finding one.

Sure, but most magic items will be found in dungeons, caves, or whatever. Not a place that someone is leaving things for their grandkids.

 

[Agamon]

From a verisimilitude pov, if magic item creation is rare and most NPCs think like PCs that a cursed item is a pita, then it makes sense that the vast majority of cursed items would have a high propensity to be permanently disposed of. Does an NPC really want his grandkids to find his old cursed sword in the attic?

Cursed items should be almost non-existent. Keeping one is like keeping sour milk in your fridge.

Sure, the occasional rich lord might have one to discourage thieves or whatever ("Ha ha, steal that"), but even the rich lord should have an extremely hard time finding one.

This is my point. NPC X isn't likely going to have one of these. Unless maybe he stumbled upon it and getting rid of it is part of an adventure.

A cursed item could be an ex-useful item that was itself cursed for some reason and hasn't been found since that happened, a trap in a tomb to discourage raiding, an unfortunately necessary MacGuffin, or whatever reason there might be one.

And as I stated above, it would be cool if these items were actually useful in some way but had a drawback that made them cursed. Maybe a PC will actually choose to use it.

 

[KarinsDad]

Sure, but most magic items will be found in dungeons, caves, or whatever. Not a place that someone is leaving things for their grandkids.

Not from a verisimilitude pov. Magic items should be found (in priority):

1) Royalty.
2) Temples.
3) Military.
4) Nobility.
5) Dungeons and caves, whatever.

Magic items are created by NPCs. Hence, NPCs should own them. Dungeons and caves should be the easiest place for adventurers to find them because royalty, temples, the military, and to a lesser extent nobility have really difficult defenses to get past (instead of 5 foes show up, 50 foes with magic show up) whereas monsters in caves and such are not as organized and do not collect in as large of groups.

But because magic items are hoarded by the first 4 groups, they should be harder to find in group #5. For example, Orcs should have some magical items in an entire orc kingdom because they raided some villages and towns in the past. But again, orc royalty, temples, the military, and nobility should have those items, not simple orc shamans of a dinky tribe (except items the shaman himself could make, or maybe one that got handed down through the tribe for centuries).

Items to me should be rare for PCs because they are rare in dungeons and caves, not because the items are necessarily rare in the real world. If PCs start raiding temples and manage it, then their magical haul should be better. Course, the repercussions of that...

 

[SilverBulletKY]

Not from a verisimilitude pov. Magic items should be found (in priority):

1) Royalty.
2) Temples.
3) Military.
4) Nobility.
5) Dungeons and caves, whatever.

Magic items are created by NPCs. Hence, NPCs should own them. Dungeons and caves should be the easiest place for adventurers to find them because royalty, temples, the military, and to a lesser extent nobility have really difficult defenses to get past (instead of 5 foes show up, 50 foes with magic show up) whereas monsters in caves and such are not as organized and do not collect in as large of groups.

But because magic items are hoarded by the first 4 groups, they should be harder to find in group #5. For example, Orcs should have some magical items in an entire orc kingdom because they raided some villages and towns in the past. But again, orc royalty, temples, the military, and nobility should have those items, not simple orc shamans of a dinky tribe (except items the shaman himself could make, or maybe one that got handed down through the tribe for centuries).

Items to me should be rare for PCs because they are rare in dungeons and caves, not because the items are necessarily rare in the real world. If PCs start raiding temples and manage it, then their magical haul should be better. Course, the repercussions of that...

Evil characters that aren't royalty or go to temples can create magic items too...

 

[KarinsDad]

Evil characters that aren't royalty or go to temples can create magic items too...

Yup. That's why adventurers go after them. The odds improve.

 

[SkidAce]

A thread about this topic that I just remembered.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?357128-Cursed-items-and-Identify-in-5e&highlight=identify

 

[SkidAce]

And the source document...

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140512

 

[Agamon]

And the source document...

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140512

Cool, yeah, I had forgotten about that one. This does bode well that we'll see "cursed" items as useful items with drawbacks rather than things like Sword -2.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

I really like that article. The only thing I may do is have the identify spell consume the pearl for each use. I think it possibly meant to say this anyway. Otherwise, once you get a pearl worth 100g, you could cast identify all day and never have to worry about an items consequences. I'm fie with identify showing all properties, good and bad, but I'd like for it to be a costly spell.